Sunday Sunday

Sitting here, on the afternoon of the Arsenal Chelsea match and listening to Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish, how else could I title this afternoon's installment of Tales...? Ok, so it's written by a Chelsea fan, but I'm not sure how much music in my collection bears the Arsenal stamp. The Sex Pistols obviously and I guess you could say that whilst The Clash's London Calling was written primarily by a Chelsea and QPR fan, it was inspired by Arsenal. What? Yeah, the producer, Guy Stevens (a hero to both Mick n' Joe), was such a massive Arsenal fan that he would visit the ground- and be allowed onto the pitch by a Clash fan working at Arsenal- before going to recording sessions. But there isn't much else in there- hang on! Depeche Mode's Martin Gore is a Gooner. But most of his output, much as I love it, isn't really going to get me in the mood for the big one in about 4 hours time.

I digress.

Quite an important game today, I think. I'm not sure if I managed to articulate just how important it is for us, a win would put us right back in there, whilst a defeat- well, that's unthinkable really. Yes, we have a game in hand, but as I said yesterday, for confidence, for momentum, for not having blown it at home against a title rival, we have to, have to, have to, have to win. Happily, there is good news ahead of the game; by coincidence, my last game on my Pro Evo Master League was against Chelsea and I won it 5-1. The scorers being Vela and Fabregas via a couple of "Lampards", Bendtner from the penalty spot and then, on as subs, Walcott and Wilshere.

The bad news, apart from the fact that Bendtner and Wilshere won't be available today, is that this game took place in 2012. And that it's just a computer game. Nevertheless, despite feeling somewhat pessimistic about the game earlier in the week, as first teamers and back ups and  dropped like flies, whenever I think about the game, I keep seeing this headline, "Rampant Arsenal stun Blues". And okay, it isn't the snappiest headline ever but then I'm not a headline writer. In fact, I nearly rewrote it to make it better, but this is what I see in my mind's eye. I have no idea how we're going to win. It's going to be very difficult without Robin and without a left back we can have any real confidence in (Traore? Silvestre? Eboue? spin the wheel..), especially so if William Gallas' eye has not recovered sufficiently for him to take part. But, whilst we may think back to the last meeting of the teams in horror, as our manager points out, the scoreline could have been very different to the 4-1 reverse we suffered.

Coming on the back of the humbling at home to Manchester United in the Champions League semi, it's perhaps fair to suggest that the nature of the defeats led to a slight overreaction regarding this team's quality. I think the lads have shown that they are a team to be taken seriously, or at least are much improved from last spring but they have to show they have the nous to win a game that could go either away and the ruthlessness to take the chances that come their way. A continued failing in this regard is why we lost so heavily to Chelsea, it's also why we lost those games in Manchester earlier this season. Today is a great chance to show that lessons have been learnt. A chance for Eduardo and, maybe, Carlos Vela to show the manager that he is right to feel he shouldn't sign a player like Chamakh in January. 

I mentioned Andrey Arshavin's struggles to motivate himself yesterday and then I went to the shops and saw; on the backpage of the Mirror, that he is thinking, or was, about quitting football. And then I went back to my original thought of "Get over yourself Andrey!" 

He of course, is a player that Arsène chose not to start in the FA Cup semi final, not one of the boss' finest decisions no matter how he rationalises it, and then he missed that 4-1 home defeat last season because, well, the season was over by then. Subject to a profile piece in today's Observer, his highlighted mix of steel and silk could be pivotal today. Read the piece, I think it's slightly backhanded towards the gaffer, yet instructive on why Andrey is the way he is and why he is such an asset to Arsenal. I know that whilst Arshavin's views on women drivers might upset the pc brigade, my mate Harry would certainly enjoy them!

Another whose mix of steel and silk is very much appreciated by the Arsenal crowd is Thomas Vermaelen- he's also someone we didn't have when the season ended so badly for us. He says that never having played against Drogba before, he's  "looking forward" to the challenge. He will be the leader of the defence today should Gallas not make it and when he says,

“Me, I like to tackle, I like to head the ball, I like a challenge. Why? I’ve always been a defender, since I was young, and it’s my job. Scoring a goal is nice for a player, good for the confidence, but if in the first place you’re a defender then that’s more important... I’m more happy with a clean sheet than scoring. For example, I was more happy with the result against Tottenham — keeping a clean sheet against our big rivals — than scoring two against Wigan.”

you feel that finally; seven years after Tony Adams called it a day, five years after Martin and nearly four years after Sol Campbell went bananas, we have a centre back within the team ready to continue the "You will never pass the Arse!" tradition of Adams, Bould, Keown and Campbell.

Perhaps that will matter more than ever this afternoon. Enjoy the game, wherever you are.